Blitz Bureau
The Index Fell and the Small-Caps Rose:
The Sensex opened Tuesday at 77,418.97, down 309.19 points, on crude strength after the US–Iran ceasefire lapsed. The detail worth having: the BSE Smallcap Select Index went the other way, up 24.22 points to 9,146.19. Oil risk is being priced into large caps, not into domestic demand.
Banking: Deposits Are Growing at Their Fastest Since 2016
Bank deposits grew 15.4 per cent year-on-year as on 31 July, the fastest since December 2016, up from 12.7 per cent a fortnight earlier. The trigger is not retail sentiment: it is the RBI’s June facility for fresh three-to-five-year FCNR(B) deposits, on which the central bank bears the full hedging cost.
Agriculture : One Crop Explains Two-Thirds of the Shortfall
Kharif sowing reached 1,016.57 lakh hectares to 14 August, against 1,037.52 lakh a year earlier — 20.95 lakh hectares short. Rice alone accounts for 14.37 lakh of that, or 68.6 per cent. Pulses, which need far less water, are almost exactly level at 108.14 lakh hectares.
Uttar Pradesh: Cashless Treatment for the Volunteer at the Gate
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched the Chief Minister’s PRD Cashless Medical Scheme at Gorakhpur on Tuesday, at a conference of Prantiya Rakshak Dal personnel. PRD volunteers staff polling stations, fairs and festival duty across Uttar Pradesh; until now they had no cashless entitlement of their own.
Labour: 423 Contract Workers, One Conciliation
The office of the Regional Labour Commissioner (Central), Kanpur, concluded a settlement on Tuesday benefiting 423 contract workers at an ordnance factory. Conciliation under the central machinery rarely makes news; it is also the mechanism through which most industrial disputes in the public-sector defence estate are actually resolved.
Semiconductors
Twelve Approved, Three Already Producing
Of twelve commercial semiconductor facilities approved under the India Semiconductor Mission, three are operational as of this month, with India’s first fab — the Tata–PSMC plant at Dholera — still under construction. Approved investment across the mission stands at ₹1,65,685 crore, spread over six states.
Trade: Thirty-Four Days of Duty-Free Britain
The India–UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement entered into force on 15 July, making Tuesday day thirty-four. On day one alone more than fifty consignments worth over $140 million left India for the UK at zero duty, shipped from over twenty ports, airports and cargo complexes.
Energy: Three Hundred Gigawatts, and the Pace Is Ahead
India crossed 300 GW of non-fossil installed capacity as on 31 July — more than 60 per cent of the 500 GW target for 2030. Solar alone added about 28.78 GW in the first seven months of 2026, a run-rate of roughly 4.1 GW a month against the 3.8 GW the remaining target requires.
Cricket: A Duck in the First Over, and Still 294 Ahead
Yashasvi Jaiswal fell for a duck in the opening over of India’s second innings at Galle on Tuesday, and India still led by 294 at lunch on day four. KL Rahul and Devdutt Padikkal added 65 briskly before Prabath Jayasuriya removed Rahul for 35 and trapped Shubman Gill lbw for 8.
Cinema: Half the Weekend’s Tickets Sold on One Day
India’s major releases together crossed ₹100 crore gross on 15 August. Inside that, the national chains — PVR, INOX and Cinepolis — sold roughly 114,000 tickets across the weekend, of which more than 54,000 went on Independence Day itself. Nearly half the weekend happened in a single day.
